


The Latest Greatest Fucking Upgrade

by enter_fand0m_reference00



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Attempted Murder, Case Fic, M/M, Murder, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, some anti-android sentiments, some dead androids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-06-29 19:33:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15735963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enter_fand0m_reference00/pseuds/enter_fand0m_reference00
Summary: Gavin is assigned RK900 as a partner and makes it clear he is not happy and the RK900 is to leave him the heck alone, but almost as soon as he makes this clear a case involving dead androids shows up and he is forced to work with the RK900 to figure out what is happening





	1. Today Was Not a Good Day

It was not a good day, Gavin decided. No, in fact, it was a pretty bad day, all things considered, and it was only 10:00 am. The weather was terrible- a dark, grumbling mass of clouds sat over the precinct that had poured rain on and off since 6:00- the traffic was terrible, Gavin’s car kept dinging on about something, and his father called to tell him to talk to his mom because she has been “worried ever since the revolution". 

Now to top it all off here was Connor- the plastic prick- showing the offices to a slightly taller copy of himself.

Gavin did a double-take, which was enough for Connor to see him and approach to talk. Closer Gavin could see that new-Connor had sharp greyish blue eyes and a lower brow. It made him look meaner than original-Connor.

Connor brought his twin over. “Detective, this is RK900. He would have been the next model after me. I found him in one of the Cyberlife warehouses.” Connor gave a somewhat forced smile, for whatever reason he had been trying to form a friendship between himself and Gavin (or at least put an end to outward hostilities). His twin made no such effort, his expression staying flat though his eyes did glint with something that Gavin couldn't quite place.

“Aw shit, there's more of you ken dolls now?” Gavin asked without even thinking, but he decided not to feel bad. “I need a fucking coffee.” He started walking towards the break room.

“I thought I might introduce you to my brother since you-" Connor began, following after him with the evil twin trailing a couple steps behind.

“Brother?”

“Well yes. He is, after all, made from the same sets of code as me.” Connor offered as an explanation.

“Ah yes, all clear now,” Gavin grumbled sarcastically.

“Anyways, I wanted you to meet him-"

“Look Barbie, I don't give a shit about meeting plastic prick the second.” Gavin interrupted looking back at Conner number 2 who was following with a completely neutral expression on its face. “Why’re you so fucking weird?” He asked new-Connor.

Connor looked back to see what he was talking about and realized he was referring to the lack of emotion in the other. “He has actually yet to become deviant,” Connor spoke for him, “Cyberlife wanted to ensure that he would not hit the same pitfalls as me and so made his firewalls resistant to outside deviancy.”

Connor looked at Gavin, who was giving him the blankest expression in the world and almost chuckled. “He has to choose to become deviant, I can't make him deviant as I did with the Cyberlife warehouse of androids.”

Gavin tried not to look thankful that Connor explained. “Do you ever fucking speak for yourself?” He asked in a clipped tone.

RK900 blinked at him. “Of course, I just find Connor is more adept at explaining matters of deviancy since he has experience with such things.”

“Uh-huh,” Gavin said before turning to fill up his coffee.

“Anyways-" Connor tried again.

“Look tin can, I have work to do so if you and Robocop could just go… I don't fuckin’ know, pester Hank or whatever the shit you do on a daily basis.” Gavin shooed him away.

Connor seemed to finally get the message and gave Gavin a look that was half angry and half defeated before turning to new-Connor and heading towards Anderson’s desk. RK900 gave one last look at Gavin, eyes thinning, and Gavin suddenly felt the need to cover his chest and privates as if the android had x-ray vision, but he brushed away the idea and took a large swig of hot coffee. RK900 turned and followed Connor.

Gavin had a good five minutes of peace before Fowler’s booming voice called for him.

When Gavin arrived in Fowler’s office the RK900 was already standing there facing Fowler. Gavin stood next to it with a scowl. “Any reason you need me, sir?”

“As a matter of fact, yes I do,” Fowler said with a somewhat bemused expression that told Gavin he would not be a fan of whatever scheme Fowler had thought up. “I'm temporarily assigning RK900 as your partner until we figure out where he needs to be.”

“What?!” Gavin all but sputtered. “Why?!”

“Well you are the only detective without a partner as of right now and RK900 needs something to do so he might as well babysit.”

“You can't do that!” Gavin decided to yell like a child and inwardly cringed at his own tone.

“That is just petulant,” RK900 stated evenly. “I see no reason the partnership might not be useful.”

“Except that I hate you plastic pricks and you’re the most robotic one I've ever seen. And I was around Connor before he went deviant!”

“Detective, it really isn't a choice,” Fowler said tersely. 

“Fine.” Gavin spat the word like venom. “But you can't make me happy about it.”

Gavin could almost swear he saw the slightest smirk on the android’s lips as they left the office.

RK900 settled itself on the other side of Gavin’s desk, much the same to Connor and Hank’s setup. Gavin elected to ignore it while they both sifted through files and filled out paperwork. RK900 quickly finished its stack and reached towards some of Gavin’s stack only to receive a harsh slap on the hand. It looked up at Gavin, confused.

“I can do it.” Gavin grit out. “It's my stack and I can do it. I don't need you doing my job.”

Rk900’s LED flickered yellow for a second before he drew his hand back. “I apologize, detective, I did not mean to imply that you were incapable of your job.”

Gavin made a small pshh sound, but made no further comment, leaving RK900 to sit in silence. RK900 took the time to scan Gavin’s face and read through what records he had that were accessible. Gavin, it turned out, was gruff and prone to quite a few violent encounters, but he had a great record of solved cases. That info was stored away for later.

“How come no one calls you a name?” Gavin asked out of nowhere.

“Pardon?”

“Connor and Fowler both called ya RK900. Bit of a mouthful. Where's your fuckin’ name?”

“Connor has neglected to give me one in an expressed hope that I make one for myself, I believe he hopes it will lead me to deviancy quicker.” RK900’s brows knit for a second and its LED flashed yellow, but it passed quickly. “You may decide a name if you like.”

“How about Dick?” Gavin offered with a slight chuckle, feeling a bit like he was a middle schooler again.

RK900 thought for a moment. “Dick, a nickname for the Germanic name Richard, meaning a strong or powerful ruler. Yes, I find that name choice acceptable.”

“That's not what I fuckin-"

“Do you know what the name Gavin means?” Richard asked. Gavin tried to hide the fact that he was actually somewhat curious, but something must have shown it anyway. “Gavin is a Welsh name meaning hawk of battle or white hawk depending on the translation.”

“Great, I'm so fucking glad Cyberlife thought this trivia would be helpful in finding criminals or I don't know what the fuck I’d do,” Gavin replied quickly and he didn't feel bad when he saw Richard’s eyebrows lower back into that same placid expression he had seen when Connor introduced them.

Suddenly Richard perked up slightly, like a dog hearing a dog whistle. His LED went yellow for a moment. “We're needed at a crime scene, detective.”

“Shit,” Gavin grumbled, setting aside his paperwork.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think, I would absolutely love comments! If you have any ideas or requests or just want to talk you can dm me at my insta: @seashells_and_sand


	2. Back Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's begin this case, shall we?

It was raining outside when they pulled up to the crime scene: an old, abandoned-looking house. Chris met them at the tape.

“How’s it lookin’ Chris?” Gavin asked.

“Not great. This building’s been empty for quite a while now. The victim is a female android, she was found today by a group of teens looking for a hangout. Can't tell how long she's been here.” Chris said it all quickly as they walked towards the house.

“Right. How come Anderson doesn't have this fuckin’ case?”

“He and Connor are on another case, but they will be over shortly to provide what insight they can,” Richard spoke up from behind.

“Ok then, come on tin can I wanna see what you can do.” 

Richard stood in front of the victim, she was splayed out, her body was beaten badly with slashes across her face, her right arm had been disconnected and lay in segmented pieces next to her, and her left leg from the knee down was missing completely.

“This isn't where she was murdered, this was the dumping ground, too much thirium has been drained from her and not enough of it is at this scene.” Richard began. “She was restrained, likely tied to a chair or hanging from rafters by her wrists. I would say she’s been dead about two days.”

Gavin wouldn't admit that he was slightly impressed or that he was slightly more afraid for his job now. “Anything on the fucker who did it?” Gavin asked with a smirk.

“The criminal was careful to wipe down any traces of himself, but I can tell from the wound depth and size ratio that it was likely a man around 6’1".”

Gavin’s smirk stuttered slightly. “Sure, anything else?”

Richard’s eyes thinned for a second and his LED spun yellow as he looked at the floor. “There are footprints with thirium residue on them leading outside, it could be someone else who found her and didn't call it in or it could be our guy.”

“What the fuck’re you waiting for? Let's see where they go.”

Richard gave Gavin a cool look and then looked back down at the ground and followed the set of footprints only he could see. They went to the back door of the house, Gavin following behind Richard feeling somewhat like a puppy as he was led around.

They walked through the backyard and towards the house a little ways away from it when Richard suddenly stopped, Gavin walked right into his back and made a small sound of surprise.

“Dick, what the fuck are you doing?” Gavin growled.

Richard gestured for him to be quiet, keeping his eyes on the building. “I can read a heat signature inside, they may be dangerous.”

“Oh good, this shit was getting dull,” Gavin stated and pulled out his gun, positioning himself beside the door.

Richard gave him a small nod before lifting his leg and kicking the door down. Before Gavin could get too impressed he mentally reminded himself that these houses were abandoned and rotting, the door might have been as thin as paper.

Gavin led in first with Richard following behind. Even though Gavin was looking for a suspect he was still surprised when they came diving out of the darkness and tackled him.

Richard grabbed onto the young man trying to pull him off of Gavin before he could swing. “Hey!” Gavin protested, to Richard’s surprise. “I can fight my own fights!”

Richard understood, for a second, the human habit of rolling one’s eyes. He gave one more big tug on the suspect who finally let go of Gavin, making Richard stumble back slightly, arms still fastened around the man’s middle. The guy jabbed something into Richard’s side which made Richard shout in surprise and his arms malfunctioned momentarily.

The man twisted and grabbed Richard and held him in front, making Richard’s knees bend awkwardly to accommodate the height difference. He recognized what the man was holding now, a taser. He pressed it against Richard's LED.

“Don’t make me do it!” The guy shouted, his voice wavering slightly. “I didn't do nothin’.”

“You've just fucking attacked a police officer and are threatening another with a fucking taser!” Gavin shouted. “That’s not nothing!”

The guy’s grip on Richard tightened and Richard began preconstructing different scenarios. “Gavin, perhaps we should go with a gentler approach than yelling.”

“And you, plastic asshole, you're supposed to be the latest greatest fucking update, how do you get yourself grabbed that easy?!” Gavin growled. “And don't say it was to help me, I told you I could fight my own fights.”

“He appears to be armed with a taser that negates your last claim,” Richard replied coolly.

“Listen, dude, I don't know what you want, but I've done nothing wrong.” The guy holding Richard finally spoke up again.

The door of the house opened again and Hank came in followed by Connor. The guy backed up a bit, pulling Richard awkwardly along with him.

Connor scanned the guy’s face quickly. “Tony Kimberly, I need you to let go of the RK900.”

Tony’s eyes shot to Connor. “N-no, I can’t, I need you guys to listen to me.”

“We will listen,” Connor soothed, “But first you have to let go so we can really talk.”

Richard felt Tony’s grip loosening slightly before Gavin stepped forward and Tony’s grip tightened again as he took another step back.

“Back off. Back off!”

Richard sighed, this was taking too long. He grabbed Tony’s wrist holding the taser, twisting it away from his head and threw Tony over his shoulder, body slamming him into the floor.

The taser clattered uselessly to the ground and skidded to where Gavin was standing. Gavin picked it up and looked at it for a moment before looking up at Richard.

“You mean to tell me that you could've done that this whole fucking time?!”

“Well it wasn't a complete guarantee, but yes. Why? Where you worried about me?” Richard asked, his tone seemed somewhat sincere, but there was a very slight smirk on his face.

“No, I think we just wasted a fuck-ton of time.”

The smirk slipped back into that cold neutral expression Richard always wore.


	3. Good Cop's Out Today

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An interrogation... Ooo

Tony Kimberly was sitting at the metal table in the interrogation room tapping nervously on the table. Gavin and Richard stood at the mirrored window looking in.

“Anything you wanna tell me about your fucking scans before I go make this bastard confess?” Gavin asked.

“He didn't do it.”

“What?”

“He didn't do it.”

“Yeah, no, I got that part, tin can. Would you like to explain?” 

“He is not the correct height or weight to have inflicted the wounds on the victim.” Richard turned to Gavin. “Should we tackle the interrogation together?”

“Why do you want to interrogate the fucker if he had nothing to do with it?” 

“I said he isn't the murderer, not that he doesn't know something or is somehow complicit.”

Gavin gave a grunt response, slightly embarrassed. Of course, he had known that it’s just that this plastic asshole had a way of twisting his words to make him sound like a fucking idiot.

Tony looked up as they came in. “Look, sir, I didn’t mean nothing by threatening your android, sir. I just, I didn’t want you to shoot me for trying to hit you!”

Gavin gave a sigh as he sat across from Tony, Richard remained standing. “Look, Tony, I’m going to be very clear with you. You assaulted a uniformed officer, “Gavin gestured to himself, “and then threatened the life of another.”

“Threatened the life of-? He’s plastic! They aren’t alive!”

Richard spoke up, “In the eyes of the law androids are seen as sentient, thus they have a life.”

“That’s rich!” Tony scoffed.

“I must ask you to refrain from comments towards my partner,” Gavin said with a certain conviction.

Tony glanced at him and settled back down. “Like I said… sir, I meant nothing by my behavior and I am not looking for any trouble.”

“Well, that’s a shame because I am,” Gavin replied, giving it a pause to settle in. “There is a reason you came out swinging. There is something you saw or something you are trying to hide and I know it.”

“Tony, we can make this all go away if you just tell us any information you know,” Richard added.

“What is this? Good cop, bad cop?” Tony asked sarcastically, though a nervousness lay in it.

“No,” Gavin stated simply. “We’re both the bad cop. The RK800 who tried to get you to come peacefully- who you ignored by the way- he’s the good cop, but he’s out right now so I guess it’s just a bad day to be Tony Kimberly.”

Tony fidgeted slightly. “Look, man, I ain’t no snitch.”

“You also ain’t dead, but we can make that happen too,” Gavin said lowly as if keeping a secret between the two of them.

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Maybe not physically, but the is evidence to say you hid information from us and we could possibly bring you up on charges for that as well as, once again, the assault of a uniformed police officer,” Richard spoke up again, his tone cool and detached.

Tony looked between the two, his nervous expression hardened. “I ain’t talking. Not to some asshole cop and his glorified, know-it-all mannequin.”

Gavin sighed and ran a tired hand over his face. “Fine, whatever.” He stood and pressed the comm button next to the door. “Jacobson, come get this fucker.”

“Detective, I believe we should further pursue our line of questioning.” Richard urged quietly.

“No, look at his expression. He’s feeling a big fucking sense of conviction right now, we won’t get anything out of him in this state.” Gavin said quickly before turning to Tony. “Maybe a night in the cells will give you some motivation, we’ll see how you feel about talking then.”

Jacobson came and grabbed Tony’s arm, lifting him out of the chair. Tony went willingly until they got to the doorway where he suddenly began wrestling to get out of the grip on his arm. Taken by surprise, Jacobson did little to stop Tony from grabbing his gun. Tony shot Jacobson in the abdomen, taking him down.

Moving quickly Richard shoved Gavin to the side, grabbing his gun at the same time. He took two bullets to the shoulder and chest before he fired at Tony, hitting him in the center of the head. Tony swayed for a second before collapsing to the ground.

Officers were arriving on the scene along with some paramedics. Gavin assumed Richard must have contacted them when Tony first shot for them to have been here so fast. Richard turned to Gavin who was still sitting on the floor.

“Detective, are you alright?” He asked, holding out his uninjured arm to help Gavin up. Gavin got up without Richard’s help.

“Dick. What the hell-” He began, but noticed Richard begin to noticeably sway. He caught Richard as he stumbled to the side. “Woah, Woah. Hey, are you okay? Are you dying?”

Richard nodded minutely, though Gavin couldn’t tell what question he was answering.

“Hey, fuckers! Can someone get over here?!” He called.

Connor was almost instantly at his side. “I was on patrol when Richard sent me an alert. What-” then he saw Richard leaning heavily into Gavin’s arms. “Lower him to the ground, I’ll see what’s going on.”

Gavin slowly kneeled, bringing Richard with him. The lack of fight from Richard on this was concerning to Gavin, not that he gave a shit what happened to the android, just that it was strange.

Connor held Richard’s hand and both their artificial skins peeled back to show the plastic-y white underneath. Connor breathed out and let go. “His wounds are repairing themselves, but he’s lost a considerable amount of thirium which is throwing off his balance and a few other systems.”

“So all he needs is more blue blood?”

“I believe so.”

“Then what the fuck are you waiting for, Barbie?” Gavin asked gruffly. Connor got up and quickly walked off.

“I’m going to power down for a moment, do not be alarmed.” Richard suddenly said and Gavin’s attention snapped back to the android laying in his lap, how embarrassing.

“Why the fuck should I care, shit head?” Gavin barked, turning his gaze away from Richard again.

“The loss of thirium is causing an increase in error warnings which could artificially raise my stress levels. I let you know so you wouldn’t worry.”

“Do I look worried to you, Ken doll?”

Richard gave one of his knowing half-smiles before shutting his eyes. His LED went grey and lifeless and he turned to a true mannequin. 

Gavin shook his head. “Whatever,” he muttered, still looking away from the thirium coating Richard’s left shoulder and side and now coating part of Gavin’s jacket and lap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aww, Gavin does have feelings, how cute!


	4. Her Name Was Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit of a long one. Richard and Gavin start to fill in some gaps.

Connor returned quickly and Richard was up and running, looking fully repaired, in less than an hour. He had switched into clothing from the department’s lost-and-found. He was now sporting an oversized burgundy hoodie, jeans that were just a bit too tight, and a pair of black tennis shoes; overall he looked pretty put together for having had to scrounge all that up from a pile of stuff in a closet (Gavin also didn’t want to think about why a pair of pants had been in there, so he decided not to comment). By this time it was now the morning of the next day and Gavin was on his fifth cup of coffee.

Shortly after getting fully changed and putting his original outfit into a plastic bag he heard Fowler’s booming voice calling both him and Gavin into the office.

“What the fuck he want now?” Gavin grumbled under his breath. Richard just sighed and led the way.

Fowler was in a mood and he had apparently decided to chew Richard out for having shot Tony Kimberly. Richard stood with an impassive expression even as Gavin felt his cheeks heating in anger.

“I did what I could, sir,” Richard finally said as Fowler paused. “I did what I saw as necessary to the safety and life of the officers present.”

“No, you didn’t do what was necessary. You could have taken a disabling shot, but now we’ve lost our best lead and you better bet the media will get ahold of this soon enough and lord only knows what they’ll have to say!”

“Hey!” Gavin finally spoke up. Richard turned to him with an expression that told him to shut up, but he powered through. “He saved my ass- and Jacobson’s. It wasn’t his fault that Jacobson is a rookie and doesn’t know how to keep his fucking weapons on him. You know as well as I that disabling shots are not always guaranteed, Richard did what he could!”

Richard’s eyes widened in surprise and something like fascination before he dropped his facial expression to neutral and he turned back to Fowler. “With how quickly Tony acted I did not have time to fully preconstuct a scenario for each event, but from what analysis I had I believed my actions the be the best and quickest form of response.”

Fowler sighed and ran a hand over his head as if he had hair to move up there. “Fine, I am putting a warning on your record, but not much else. If a situation arises again please avoid a headshot at least.”

Richard nodded and stepped out into the hallway with Gavin shortly behind.

“Can you believe that fucker?” Gavin said once they were a decent distance away. “A warning on the records? For what, saving two or more lives?”

“I think your concern is flattering, but I do believe I was lucky to get off with just a warning. Despite any outlying information, a man is dead because of me.” Gavin looked up and was surprised to see a somewhat somber expression on the androids face.

“Look, Dick, sometimes a bad guy’s gotta die. Hopefully, it means you saved some good people.”

“I know I saved some good people.” Gavin felt a weird feeling in his chest as he thought perhaps Richard was referring to him. “Afterall, Officer Chen was in the next room.”

Gavin made a sound of fake offense and looked up at Richard to see a small smile on his face. “Fine, whatever, you plastic asshole. Let’s go do our jobs, huh?”

“Actually,” Richard spoke up, “while we were being yelled at Connor was able to track the victim, who went by the name Rose, to her previous owners, it would seem she stayed with them as a nanny after the revolution.”

“Let’s check that out then.”

 

Richard gave a short, sharp rap against the door and a woman’s voice told them she was coming. The door was gently opened by a nervous, flighty looking woman whose blonde hair was pinned back by a row of pale pink clips that matched her sundress. She wore a white knitted shawl around her shoulder and kept worrying the corner of it between two fingers.

“Can I help you?” She asked kindly, her eyes focussed on the imposing figure of Richard.

“Ma’am, we’re with the DPD and we would like to talk to you about Rose, an android who previously lived here,” Gavin spoke up.

“Oh, you found her!” She asked with an excited trill to her voice.

“This will be an easier conversation if you sit down,” Richard interjected with a gentleness that surprised Gavin.

Her expression fell. “Oh, um, c-come in. Let me grab Harrison.”

Richard and Gavin sat stiffly on the coach, neither wanting to give a relaxed, uncaring impression.

A few seconds later the woman came back with a man in tow. The man was tall and dark skinned, dressed in office attire as if the woman had grabbed him on his way out to work. When he saw the two detectives sitting in there he turned to the woman. “Sadie, honey, what’s going on?”

“They said they wanted to talk about Rose.” She half whispered.

He nodded and turned to the detectives. “Nice to meet you, detectives, I’m Harrison Grant and this is my wife Sadie. You say you have information on Rose?” He asked, offering his hand to shake before sitting on the couch across from them, Sadie joining him there.

“I’m sorry to inform you that Rose was found last night beaten and partly disassembled, effectively disabling her,” Richard said smoothly, with a touch of gentleness to his voice still.

Sadie raised a hand to her mouth in shock before looking up at her husband with tears welling in her eyes. Harrison was visibly distraught as well as he gave his wife a steadying squeeze on the shoulder and turned to the detectives. “So Rose is dead?”

“I’m afraid so,” Gavin spoke this time. “We have technicians looking into it, but we believe her memory was extremely corrupted and she would need many new parts, the android that would awake wouldn’t be the Rose you know.”

“I don’t care,” Sadie said quickly. “I just want her back, we can deal with whatever else!”

Harrison put a calming hand on Sadie’s back. “Surely they wouldn’t send out two detectives for just this. Is there something else?”

“We fully intend to bring Rose’s killer to justice and so I was hoping you could possibly tell us a bit about Rose, anything you think may be useful to know,” Gavin replied.

“O-of course,” Sadie spoke with a slightly trembling voice. “We originally brought her in to help me with the kids. Jack was only four and going to preschool and I had just had the twins, Addy and Celia. She became a companion to me in a way and she was pretty much a part of the family.” Harrison nodded along as she spoke. “Our oldest son… he didn’t like that. He had fallen in with a bad crowd and was convinced that Rose was unnatural and couldn’t feel anything for any of us. He-” Sadie took a steadying breath. “He tried to beat her to death once, I was out with Jack and the twins were asleep upstairs. Harry came home and pulled him off of her.”

Harrison patted her shoulder. “She was crying and I think that’s when she became truly deviant.” He said. “Sadie and I talked to Anthony and told him we couldn’t abide such behavior and he told us we were choosing between him and a glorified Alexa. He left that night, joined that group he had fallen in with and changed his last name, he’s ignored us ever since. We tried to hide her when they rounded up the androids, but she was found. You’ll never know how happy we were when Markus put a stop to those camps and we saw Rose walking back down our street hugging that sweater Sadie had knitted for her.”

Richard and Gavin shared a look before turning to the couple. “What did Anthony change his last name to, may I ask?”

“Oh, he uh, he changed it to Kimberly after the boy who invited him into the group,” Sadie replied.

Gavin shut his eyes for a moment. “I’m afraid we have even more bad news. A Tony Kimberly was taken into custody awhile ago before exchanging fire with an unnamed officer, where he was, unfortunately, shot.”

Sadie was crying in earnest now and excused herself.

“Did Anthony have anything to do with Rose’s death?” Harrison asked with a quiet seriousness to him.

“He isn’t the murderer, but we believe he knew the murderer or perhaps saw the murder happen,” Gavin replied.

“Rose seemed happy when she left, she said she was ‘setting something right’. Do you think Anthony might have lured her into a trap?”

“It is completely within the realm of possibility,” Richard replied this time. “How long ago was this?”

“Six days, we called in a missing person report, but nothing ever came of it.”

“According to forensics, she had only been dead two days before we found her, which means she was held captive before her death. Do you know the name of the boy who took Anthony in?”

“Christopher Kimberly.”

“Thank you very much, Mr. Grant, I will keep you posted on the proceedings of the case. We will get justice for Rose.” With that, they shook hands with Harrison and left.


	5. A Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this one is kind of short, but more is coming I promise!

Gavin’s phone rang halfway back to the office. He picked it up, “This is Gavin.”

“Hey Reed,” Chen’s voice was on the other end. “We got a call a while ago, a young woman who seemed distressed. She said she knew who killed the android and now she was afraid the man was coming for her. We sent Hank and Connor out to the address since you weren’t here. I’m sending you the address now. She 'specially requested a 'droid be sent, said she was more comfortable with 'em. How crazy's that.”

Gavin handed his phone to Richard. “Ok, tin can, tell me how to get there.”

 

They pulled up to a moldy looking old house on the outskirts of the city. Hank’s car was parked in front of it on the street, empty.

“This can’t be right. This building looks like it’s been abandoned for years.” Gavin muttered.

“I’m sure Lieutenant Anderson and Connor had the same thought,” Richard replied before climbing out of the car. Gavin grumbled a bit before climbing out as well.

“You. Stay behind me.” Gavin said, pulling his gun out.

“I would make more sense as a lead since I am less likely to die from any bullet wounds.”

“Yeah, except DPD has neglected to give any androids a gun until tensions die down, so you would only be cannon fodder.” With a look akin to a wet cat, Richard followed Gavin.

Suddenly, a shout of pain broke through the air followed by a continuous scream. Gavin glanced over at Richard. 

“Connor.” He said quietly.

“Fuck.” Gavin gave as a reply, staying quiet as well, and charged towards the door. It already hung open, half off its hinges- Connor must have kicked it open.

The whole house smelled musty and unused, but there was very little dust anywhere. The scream echoed from the upstairs before it grew staticy and fizzled out. Gavin rushed upstairs followed shortly by Richard. The only sound now was the sound of a man’s low chuckle and the sound of a struggle. Gavin turned into the room, gun out ahead of him.

“Freeze.” He commanded. The man looked up in shock at Gavin and Richard before pushing himself away from Connor’s body. He threw his knife haphazardly towards the standing pair and Richard reached out and caught it before it could make impact with either him or Gavin. The knife was just a distraction enough for the man to go diving out the window. 

Richard went to follow, but Gavin interrupted that train of thought. “Go help your fucking brother, I’ve got this bastard.” With that, Gavin went running downstairs to try and intercept the guy as he tried to get to the street.

Connor was in bad shape. One of his eyes had been stabbed until it shattered while the other one was black and drowning in thirium from one of his head wounds. One of the plates making up his cheekbone had been horribly dented and slid out of place and the rest of his body was littered with knife wounds and more dented plating. Richard felt the whisper of a feeling he couldn’t place, looking down at his predecessor. 

“H-hank?” Connor’s voice came out distorted and full of static.

“No, it’s Richard. You’re okay, it’s going to be okay.” Richard mentally sent a message to tech services with a plea to come as quickly as possible, he immediately received a response. They were on their way.

“Where’s Hank?”

“I… I don’t know,” Richard admitted and he felt Connor shudder in his arms with an unvoiced sob.

“He’s dead!” Connor cried and Richard could see his stress levels teetering on the brink of self-destruction.

“No, Connor. He’s okay, we’re all okay. You just have to hold on a little longer.”

“I…” Connor’s voice died completely. Richard shuttered at the thought of laying there, unable to see, unable to speak, and unable to move due to his wounds. He caught himself, these were the thoughts of deviants and completely unnecessary.

Connor’s LED spun a continuous red, but he never shut down completely, Richard began to wonder if he feared to do so. The sound of a banging door, as if someone were throwing their whole body against it echoed from the downstairs and Richard quietly waited for Tech to arrive, soothingly patting Connor’s hair the whole time.

 

Gavin chased after the man who darted through the streets, in and out of the road, and down alleyways. They were both tiring, but Gavin could see he was gaining on the man. The guy suddenly cut sharply to the right, running through the playground and Gavin followed, his lungs feeling like they were on fire. He would have preferred to give this role to Richard, but he had to admit that he knew nothing about androids and wouldn’t know how to help Connor at all if Connor could be helped. The playground was positioned next to a river and without so much as a blink, the man took a running dive off the short pier. With a groan, Gavin followed. 

The cold of the water shocked Gavin and he froze for a second, his limbs locking up in protest. His adrenaline solved the issue quickly and he was paddling after the man who seemed to cut through the water like a shark. Gavin could feel the river current grabbing at him as he tried to plow his way through the water, but the man had already reached the other bank. He looked back at Gavin and gave a short bark of a laugh before he took off running.

Gavin dragged himself out of the water and jogged the street corner he had seen the man turn down and he was nowhere to be seen. Gavin stood unsure and shivering for a second watching people walk around and taxis stop to pick up some of them. The man must have gotten in one of the vehicles.

“Fuck.” Gavin muttered under his breath and began the trek back to Richard. When he arrived there were the flashing lights of medical and tech services as well as more police officers.

Wank was standing next to the door, watching as they wheeled Connor out and Richard followed glumly behind.

“Where the fuck were you?!” Gavin asked, an angry heat rising to his cheeks. “Connor might be- maybe, I don’t know-”

“He isn’t dead,” Richard spoke up. “Not yet.”

“Fucker pushed me as I was heading into the basement and then locked the door behind me,” Hank replied gruffly, obviously not appreciating Gavin’s tone.

“Did you get the guy?” Richard asked Gavin in an attempt to distract and de-escalate the situation.

Gavin averted his eyes. “No, bastard shook me off at the river, hopped a cab before I made it to the other side.”

“Explains why you are looking and acting like a half-drowned cat,” Hank muttered.

“Oh go-”

“Detective.” Richard interrupted. “We need to further analyze the crime scene to ensure we haven’t overlooked something.” He turned to Hank. “And Lieutenant, I’m afraid I must request that we get a chance to talk to you further, as soon as possible.”

“Sure, sure. Whatever.” Hank waved him off and Richard reentered the house with Gavin in tow. Hank ran a tired hand over his face. “God, Connor. Don’t do this to me.” He murmured.


	6. Something Happened, Just Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was gone for so long y'all, but I am back and with a longer chapter for the troubles

The next morning came early and Gavin was sniffling and coughing pretty badly, so badly in fact that it seemed Richard had decided to be actively kind towards him. Richard set a hot coffee next to his computer moments after Gavin first walked in and took his seat across from Gavin. Gavin took a sip from then glared at Richard.

“You’ve been analyzing me ‘n shit?” Gavin more stated than asked.

Richard looked up and cocked his head to the side in an almost human gesture. “Well, yes. I learn and strengthen my decision-making algorithms by analyzing the world around me; you, as of late, have been rather central in my day to day experiences.”

“Uh-huh,” Gavin said with a somewhat blank expression. “Just, uh… just don’t do it anymore.”

Chen waltzed over to Gavin’s desk. “Hey, Asshole.” She greeted. “Hank arrived, I had him go to the interrogation room so you guys have a bit more privacy.”

“Sure, let’s go.” Richard followed shortly behind Gavin. 

“Is this what those fuckers feel like every time they get arrested?” Hank asked.

“You aren’t in any trouble, lieutenant,” Richard stated evenly. “And we will do our best to keep this as short as possible, I know Connor-”

“Connor’s completely logged off, how long I’m gone won’t make a difference to him.”

“But it makes a difference to you.” Richard pointed out and Hank huffed in response.

“Ok, so Chen called me and said that you and Connor were sent out in our place.” Gavin began.

“Yeah, girl on the phone said she needed one of the androids to come, we thought maybe she was an android or maybe she had some sort of social anxiety that didn’t act up as much around androids, it’s been known to happen. Now it’s kinda obvious it was a fake call.”

“Do you know who made the call, was she there when you arrived?”

“Nah, we’re assuming that she’s the dude’s girlfriend or sister or some shit. There was no one that we could see when we got there. I told Connor that we should split up, cover more ground, y’know? He didn’t want to… I should have listened.”

“It is normal to blame yourself when something goes wrong, but you are not at fault.” Richard cut in with a soothing tone. “So you took the downstairs then?”

“Yeah, Connor went up. I opened the basement door to see if there was anything down there and the bastard shoved me from behind; I caught myself on the railing, thank god, and he bolted the door behind me.”

“Did he say anything?” Gavin asked.

“Yeah, he kept saying something about, uh, killing the androids, teaching them a lesson. I yelled at him, told him he was a bastard, and he said I should never have treated the android as a son, much less a person. Then he left. I heard Connor calling my name, he had heard me freaking out and he was worried then there was a pause and he screamed-” Hank paused and breathed in. “Next thing I know, Chris is opening the basement door.”

“And that’s all you can remember?” Gavin asked.

“Honestly, you guys know more than me. You actually saw the fucker and you saw… you saw Connor.” Hank scratched the back of his head. “Look, I, uh, I need to get going.”

“A moment more.” Richard urged. “It seems the man is very much targeting androids, he had a chance to kill you but chose not to. I think he may not take kindly to finding that Connor actually survived.”

“What the fuck are you trying to say?” Gavin asked gruffly.

“Perhaps we should pretend that Connor, unfortunately, did not make it. Hide him away in a safe house for the time being to keep anyone from catching wind of his survival. If he knows Connor survived then he could return to kill him.”

“Forgive me for this, but shouldn’t you be wanting to use Connor as, I dunno, bait?” Gavin asked.

“No,” Richard spoke before Hank could say anything distasteful to Gavin, as his expression said he would. “He will come for me. We know he has some sort of vendetta against androids and yesterday he obviously tried to set up a trap for one of the RK androids here, that being Connor and me.”

“So where will Connor stay?” Hank asked.

Gavin sighed, “He could stay with my parents…”

“You sound hesitant,” Hank stated with a scrutinizing look. 

“I… I haven’t talked to them in a while and we don’t agree on much, but they’ll help if they think it’s necessary.” Gavin knew Richard was probably trying to analyze his emotions so he kept his gaze directed away, hoping that at least it made it harder.

“And you won’t be able to see Connor while he’s there, just in case,” Richard stated and Hank nodded hesitantly.

 

Gavin finished the call with his parents and sighed. His parents (probably) meant best, but they were so extremely stifling. He walked back into the office where Richard was sitting and going over the case file, Richard looked up at him with another scrutinizing look.

“Hank’s gone home to mourn Connor’s death,” Richard informed Gavin. “Seeing as how you are slightly less pissed than usual the conversation must have gone well enough.”

“Yeah, Chen is moving Connor to my parents’ place this evening.”

Richard nodded solemnly. “Good, now we continue to work and wait for him to come and try to kill me.”

Something soured in Gavin’s stomach. “Right.” He responded and sat across from Richard, taking his stack into his lap.

 

A call came in on Gavin’s phone and he answered quickly, bored and looking for something to do. He looked up at Richard, whose eyes were on him and whose LED was spinning an inquisitive yellow.

“We have another body.” He stated. Richard nodded and got up to go.

The address they had been given guided them to an alleyway. Three other cops were already there, standing over the broken frame of a male android. He was a WD500 with hard blows that dented the plating of his legs and torso. His eyes were stabbed out, as had been attempted with Connor’s eyes. The androids bottom jaw was missing and his fingers were half pulled off his left hand, wires still connecting them, with his right hand completely gone. 

Gavin gave a low whistle. “I thought you said he would come after you,” Gavin said quietly to Richard, so no one else could hear.

Richard shook his head and actually looked a bit confused. “He should have. He’s smart, he knows we’re catching up. Maybe he got bored, we were in the office- practically inaccessible- the whole day.”

“But you don’t know?” Gavin prodded.

“Not for certain.”

Gavin grunted in response then went to do his job.

Richard scanned the crime scene, turning off his heat scanning element as the crime scene had a couple of cops walking around that would mess with it. He found traces of thirium as streaks across the ground as if the person had walked with their foot dragging and a couple of hand-shaped marks on the wall. It matched to the WD500, he must have gotten injured, escaped and made it this far, and then either died or was killed in the alleyway. Richard followed the marks further into the alleyway and turned a corner into an even smaller alley. 

His eyes caught on a small lump laying in a larger pool of thirium, he knelt down to examine it and found it to be the missing hand, almost completely crushed. He heard the sound of a gun cocking and looked up to see a man pointing a pistol at the center of his forehead. He instantly began preconstructing the situation, trying to find the best way out, but he decided to wait; the angle that the guy was standing at and the darkness of the alley kept Richard from getting a positive ID and he wanted to wait until he had one to get out.

“Don’t move.” the gravelly voice commanded and Richard obeyed, glaring down the barrel of the gun.

“Richard, come here a moment, I wanna see your analysis on this shit.” He heard Gavin call from the main alleyway.

The man holding the gun fidgeted just a bit but kept the gun pointed at Richard.

“What are you going to do?” Richard asked lowly. “They're going to get antsy if they can’t find me.”

The man fidgeted again. “You’re going to come to with me and get into my truck with no complaint or fight or I will shoot you down and then take down as many officers as I can.”

Richard gave a very small nod to show he understood.

“Richard?” Gavin’s voice echoed. “Dick?!”

Richard felt his mouth tightened into a straight line. He meets the man’s eyes as he gestures for Richard to stand slowly. He began to rise slowly as he suddenly heard Gavin cuss.

Richard looked over to see another man step out of a doorway and catch Gavin in a headlock, pressing a gun against his temple. “Shut up. Shut up.” the man hissed in Gavin’s ear.

With a pissed look Gavin shut his mouth then looked over at Richard, he seemed to be trying to say something with his eyes, but Richard could not understand.

“Chris, we didn’t want no human, we’re only after the tin can.” the one pointing a gun at Richard’s head whispered lowly.

“I know that Jack, but what was I supposed to do. Besides, why should we feel bad about killing a plastic-lover.”

The man, named Jack apparently, shrugged. “Guess so.”

Gavin struggled for a moment, but Chris tightened his arm around Gavin’s neck and after a moment Gavin’s face started to turn a bit red and his hands began scratching at the arm. Richard finally had to act, he grabbed Jack’s gun with one hand and knocked his hand away from the trigger with the other in one swift movement. He twisted it and held it against Jack’s forehead.

“Let go of the detective.”

Chris loosened his hold and Gavin took in a deep breath, but he didn’t let go of him. “I don’t care if you kill him, but I know you’ve got a nice little code telling you to protect people, so you drop your gun.”

Richard’s gun began to lower, but then he heard Gavin’s voice. “Dick, don’t you dare. You’re not fucking going with them so don’t you dare set that fucking gun down.” Gavin gave a small shout of pain as Chris dug the barrel of the gun deeper into his temple.

A red wall telling him to keep aiming the gun filled Richard’s vision and he looked at it in confusion. He pressed his hands against it and thought for a moment, he knew Chris was going to do it and he didn’t want to let Gavin die.

Want. that was an interesting feeling, he didn’t quite understand it.

He began pulling at the wall, trying to get back to Gavin. Finally, it crashed down and Richard allowed his hands to lower. He gave an apologetic glance towards Gavin, Gavin gave a confused expression in return. Richard let the gun drop from his hands and it clattered loudly on the pavement.

“Detroit PD!” an officer yelled, coming around the corner.

Chris turned to look at her, surprised. It was enough, Richard kicked Jack down and then went running at Chris. He grabbed Chris’s wrist and pointed his gun up into the air and pulled Gavin away from Chris and to him. In surprise, Chris squeezed the trigger and the bullet boomed up into the sky.

Richard heard a scramble behind him and pulled Gavin with him as he jumped back when Jack shot it missed them and hit Chris right in his chest. Jack yelled something as Chris went down and turned to look at the rest of them, Gavin and Richard fallen to the ground and the cop distracted by Chris who was still half alive.

Jack scrambled to his feet and went running. The cop turned and went after him, but it was too late, he had reached the truck and was starting it and screeching away down the street. “Shit!” the cop yelled.

Richard sighed in relief and looked down at Gavin who was still looking at him with that curious expression.

“What?” Richard asked.

“Something happened,” Gavin stated. “Just now, you’re different somehow.”

“I suppose so,” Richard answered.


	7. Google It

Gavin and Richard were back at the precinct and sitting at their desks. Richard took a stack of papers and immediately began filling them out and reading over them one by one while Gavin stared at him from across the table. Finally, Richard happened to glance up as he was writing, he paused and met Gavin’s gaze with a quirked brow that seemed to say: ‘can I help you?’

“How?” Gavin asked suddenly, a bit loud.

“How what, might I ask?” 

Gavin exhaled sharply. “I don’t know, how did it happen in the alleyway? How are you just not reacting to it? How are you just going about your workday as if nothing happened?”

“Well, I suppose I will answer them in order. I’m not particularly sure how it happened, but I just knew if I set that gun down you were dead and I didn’ want you to die.”

“You didn’t want-”

“Shut up, I’m answering your questions. The second answer, how exactly am I suppose to react?” Richard asked. “And finally, because work needs to be done. Don’t you want me to do my work?”

“Well, yes, but… I don’t know, you just went through some fucking… life-changing event and now you are doing exactly what you did yesterday.”

“Mhmm, I see. I supposed I’ll dwell on it tonight. You may have noticed, our last suspect got away and he’ll be coming back, especially since we killed two of his friends.”

“Two?”

“Yes, Tony’s mother said that he was taken in by a young man named Christopher Kimberly. I just so happens the one that got shot was that young man. Given that they came for me- and they did come for me, they were lying in wait- with only the two of them against one of the most advanced prototypes and an android with a complete lack of empathy up to that point, they do not have any other followers or helpers, they were trying to get revenge for Tony’s death.”

“So he’ll be back.”

“Yes, and he will try to take me by surprise.”

Gavin nodded to himself, then looked out the window half-mindedly. “It’s getting dark out, we should probably get going while people are still on the street. It may stop him from trying to attack.”

Richard nodded and stood up to begin packing up his things. As they reached the door instead of turning down the street, Gavin continued on beside Richard.

“I’ll- uh, I’ll walk home with you… just in case.”

Richard briefly thought about telling Gavin he was much stronger and faster than him and so Gavin being there would make almost no difference if something were to happen. He quickly decided against this, choosing instead to allow Gavin along.

When they reached Hank’s house, where Richard was staying, Richard began up the walk.

“Dick,” Gavin said quickly. “You better fucking be there on time tomorrow.”

“Of course, detective,” Richard answered smoothly. “See you tomorrow.” He closed the door gently, hoping to not wake Hank if he was up.

Richard sank onto the couch and pressed his hand lightly against his thirium pump which was laboring a bit harder than was strictly necessary. Richard did a quick search for what may be causing such a reaction; he could disregard strenuous activity and any heart issue, leaving the fact that he was either having a panic attack or was having what many humans referred to as a ‘crush’. He looked up that term and felt the heat of extra thirium rising to his cheeks as he read up on it.

 

Gavin turned from the door with a stupid-looking smile on his face. He wondered about Richard, how he had seemed to just blow off his new deviancy, maybe it just hadn’t hit him yet, maybe he was one of those deviants that were actually content. He, of course, thought again about what it could mean that Richard put himself at risk to ensure Gavin’s safety. He honestly hopes it never happens again, that sinking feeling of seeing that gun drop from Richard’s hand was as much of that as he would ever need.

He spotted an idling truck that looked familiar, quickly pulling his thoughts back to the present. He pulls out his gun and holds it in front of him as he creeps towards the vehicle. He reaches slowly and pulls open the truck door, only to find it completely empty. He turned to look in the trunk catching a quick glimpse of a figure in front of him before a baseball bat collided with his head.


	8. Who is This?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shit's getting real

Richard set a coffee on Gavin’s desk and then sat at his desk and began to do paperwork, but he couldn’t seem to focus, constantly glancing at the door or Gavin’s empty seat. 

Hank shuffled in late with his hair mussed by sleep. He caught Richard’s expression fall before turning back to his work.

“Is Reed not here?” Hank asked as he came over.

“He hasn’t shown up,” Richard stated shortly.

“Should we go check on him?” 

“I have work that has been left unfinished.”

Hank blew a raspberry. “Fuck work, you aren’t doing anything productive. I’ll go tell Fowler we are swinging by Gavin’s place, alright? You never know he might be sick or he fell off his shelves trying to reach the top one.” Hank snickered at that last one but paused when he saw Richard just kind of looking at him. “Y’know… climbing the shelves? Because he’s so short.”

“Oh… um, very funny.” Richard responded with a weak smile.

“Ok, I see, you’re too worried to have a sense of humor right now. Get your coat, I’ll go tell Fowler now.”

Richard nodded and began to stand up.

 

As Hank and Richard left the precinct Richard turned to head down the street.

“Rich, where ya going?”

“To Gavin’s?” Richard offered up, sounding almost like a kid.

“I have a car.”

“Oh.” Richard followed Hank to his vehicle with a slightly bashful look. It confused Hank, he was so used to the cold and calculated looks, it threw him for a loop to see Richard so worried and uncertain.

They drove to Gavin’s house in silence, letting the sound of the radio fill the car.

Richard pressed his hand to the call system, bypassing any need for someone to come unlock the door, and entered the building. He headed straight to the third floor with Hank huffing and puffing up the stairs behind him.

“How… do… you… know…” Hank asked between steps.

“I accessed precinct documents on Gavin and found his address,” Richard answered smoothly.

They reached Gavin’s door and Richard knocked sharply. He paused and when there was no answer he knocked again. Finally, he grew annoyed and gave the door a sharp kick, opening it swiftly.

“I’ll pay damages.” He muttered to himself.

Gavin’s cat meowed at the strangers and quickly trotted over to her empty food bowl and sat in it as if to further prove it was empty. 

Hank sighed. “I’ll feed the poor cat, you check on Reed.”

Richard nodded and headed towards the bedroom. The door wasn’t fully latched so he nudged it open gently. Gavin’s bed was empty, Richard felt his thirium pump pick up speed, but unlike last night it wasn’t a somewhat pleasant thumping, this was painful.

The rest of the rooms proved to be empty as well and with a growing worry, Richard returned to the front entrance.

“Well?” Hank asked.

“He’s not here,” Richard said softly as if saying it louder would make it truer.

“It’s ok, I’m sure he’s alright. We just need to retrace his steps, he probably got distracted by a bar or something and is asleep on one of their tables.

Richard nodded, “Right ok. Last I saw him was at your house.”

“Ok, then we’ll go there.”

 

Richard stood at the sidewalk in front of Hank’s house looking around the area.

“Ok, so we should start walking towards Gavin’s place, he probably got distracted on his way there.” Hank started.

“One moment, there may be something here.”

Hank doubted it, but if it would help Richard he decided not to comment. “Ok, I’ll look around.” He answered, making a point of scouring the grass next to the sidewalk.

“Hank.” He heard Richard say softly after a while. He looked up to see Richard on the other side of the street.

Hank walked towards him. “What is it, Rich?”

Richard was staring down at a small splatter of blood against the curb, his chest heaving up and down.

“Richard?”

“It’s his,” Richard stated shortly.

“No, I’m sure it’s alright. Just because it’s there doesn’t necessarily mean-”

“No, I- I analyzed it, it’s his.”

“Oh,” Hank responded, unsure. He looked over at Richard and took in his expression and posture. “Rich, you need to sit down.”

Richard didn’t respond so Hank took him by the arm and guided him to sit further down the curb.

“Rich, he’s ok. Alright? That wasn’t near enough blood to be life-threatening, barely enough to even be close to a scraped knee.”

“Someone hurt him, Hank. Someone has him.” Richard’s voice was heightening with emotion and for a moment Hank really wished Connor was there, he would know how to handle the first wave of deviant emotion.

“If someone has him they have him for a reason,” Hank stated, attempting to keep his voice even. “They will contact us.” 

Hank looked up at the gathering clouds, it seemed to rain every other day this time of year. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

Richard nodded and followed him in.

 

Richard was pacing the living room when a phone call came in from Gavin’s phone. Richard’s LED spun yellow as he answered it.

“Who is this?” He asked.

“Oh, that’s sad. He has you saved on his phone with a little star next to it and you don’t even recognize his number.” A male voice mocked.

“And you aren’t him, so would you like to share?” Richard answered with a cold edge.

“You know me, you killed both my brothers.”

“To be fair, they aren’t actually your brothers and you shot the last one, I just dodged,” Richard replied, but he felt himself waver. “I still don’t understand what this has to do with the detective if you are so focused killing androids, I regret to inform you he is very human.”

“I’m not stupid.” the man replied.

“I never said you were.”

“Bullshit!” He yelled. “Listen, I saw what you are willing to do for this stupid guy, okay? You killed my brothers and I’m willing to kill him to make you understand that unless you come and take his place so the world can finally be rid of you plastic detectives.”

“Ok, ok. I’ll come, but you have to promise he walks free.” Richard acquiesced. 

“Richard, don’t-!” Gavin’s voice began, soft in the background, but was cut off by the harsh sound of skin on skin contact.

“Hey-” Richard began protesting, but was cut off.

“Come alone or I swear to God I will put a bullet in his brain.” He hissed. “And for every thirty minutes you aren’t here I’ll cut off a piece of him, just to make sure you aren’t trying to plan anything. I’ll send you an email with the address. Come. Alone.” His voice grew a bit fainter as he pulled away from the phone. “Now, Detective, did you have something to say?”

Gavin spoke very fast as if worried he wouldn’t get his whole message out. “Richard, don’t come, don’t come. It’s ok, i-it really is. You aren’t fucking dying for me so don’t you even fuckin’ dare try! Ok? I-” The line went dead.

Richard let himself collapse on the couch. He pulled up his email and refreshed it again and again until an email from Gavin came with only an address on it, the address was 20 minutes away. He glanced towards the door of the kitchen where Hank was on the phone with Fowler. Richard stood and silently slid out the front door and climbed into Hank’s car, it purred as it started and Richard took off.

 

Gavin woke up uncomfortable and cold. He tested his hands and found his wrists bound behind the back of the hard metal chair. He couldn’t tell what time of day it was, but the sun peeked through the small windows at the top of the warehouse walls. The fucker who had hit him in the head stood a little distance from him talking on the phone. Gavin felt his heart clench as he recognized Richard’s cold voice on the other end of the line, soft and muffled.

“... take his place so the world can finally be rid of you plastic detectives.” Jack finished his sentence and waited as Richard’s fuzzy voice responded.

“Richard, don’t-” Gavin began and Jack whirled on him with annoyance written on his face. Gavin felt the sting of a backhand before he even realized Jack had moved, cutting off his sentence.

“Come alone or I swear to God I will put a bullet in his brain.” Jack hissed, turning from Gavin again. “And for every thirty minutes you aren’t here I’ll cut off a piece of him, just to make sure you aren’t trying to plan anything. I’ll send you an email with the address. Come. Alone.” He looked down at Gavin with a smile that made Gavin’s skin crawl. “Now, Detective, did you have something to say?” He shoved the phone towards Gavin’s face.

Getting over his initial shock Gavin began speaking quickly, trying to get it all out. “Richard, don’t come, don’t come. It’s ok, i-it really is.” He felt his eyes burn slightly, that image of Richard’s hand dropping the gun playing in his head. “You aren’t fucking dying for me so don’t you even fuckin’ dare try! Ok? I-” Jack hung up.

“You’re gonna watch that tin can die in front of you.”

“I thought androids aren’t alive.” Gavin challenged.

“They aren’t.”

“Then how can he die?”

“Listen, asshole, you better hope he shows up in thirty minutes or I just might start cutting off pieces. Which finger are you least attached to?” Jack asked sadistically before opening Gavin’s email and sending the address to Richard. He tossed the phone at Gavin’s feet and that was when Gavin realized his ankles were tied to the chair legs.

He let out a large exhale and gave a quick prayer that Richard wouldn’t come.


	9. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is all I've got for this story. please leave comments if you like it or if there is more DBH you would like me to do

Richard pulled up outside a run-down warehouse, his thirium pump was hammering painfully against his sides at this point as he looked up at the tall warehouse. He mentally checked the time and found he had about five minutes before Gavin would start losing pieces so he pushed himself to get up and moving. He pulled his gun out and gently pushed the door open just enough to slide in, he was hoping that maybe he could take the man by surprise and nothing bad would have to happen to either him or Gavin. That hope was quickly crushed.

“Ah, ah, ah.” A voice came, sounding almost like a mom catching her kid sneaking sweets. “Gun on the floor.”

Richard closed his eyes in a pained expression and then slowly turned towards the voice, setting his gun on the ground. Jack had his gun pressed to Gavin’s head. Gavin sat there completely still, his eyes glued to Richard.

“Kick it away from you,” Jack commanded.

Richard complied, the gun skittering across the floor. “Ok, let him go.”

Gavin made a small sound of protest but stopped when the cool metal of the gun pressed harder into his temple. 

“Remove your pump.”

“What?”

“Remove your thirium pump or whatever the hell it is you call those things, then I’ll untie him,” Jack answered.

“Richard, don’t-” Gavin hissed as Jack hit him in the head with the gun.

“I told you not to say a word,” Jack told Gavin then turned to Richard. “Go ahead, tin can make it quick.”

Richard made eye contact with Gavin and gave an apologetic look as he began unbuttoning the front of his shirt. Finally, Gavin could see the faint circular outline of his pump in his chest and his whole body went cold, a feeling of unreal and too real settling at the same time.

Richard pressed the circle and stumbled slightly as warning flashes flooded his vision. Then he pulled it out and the flashes went haywire. 

His hearing was static, but he could still make out Jack’s voice. “Toss it.”

Richard did as instructed. Even that slight movement knocked his balance off and he stumbled, catching himself on the wall. Gavin was yelling his name and tugging furiously on his bonds, but it all faded to background noise.

“Ok, I did it. Let him go.” Richard said though he could barely hear himself over the electronic buzz of his hardware freaking out.

“Hmm, y’know… I think Chris might have been right. What’s the point in sparing a plastic-lover, I mean they’re almost just as bad.”

“No, n-no. You said-” One of Richard’s knees gave way and he fell to a kneeling position, cutting off his sentence.

“Yeah well, I changed my mind.”

The door suddenly slammed open about the same time Gavin’s ties finally snapped. Gavin dove to the floor, quickly tugging off his ankle restraints as Jack pointed his gun at the sudden intrusion.

“Drop the gun, hands on your head,” Hank commanded pointing his gun at Jack with Connor coming in after him holding a gun as well.

Gavin scrambled quickly, uncaring to whatever everyone else is doing. He finally found the thirium pump and gave a sigh of relief, looking over at Richard whose eyes were closed his expression slack, and still in that same half collapsed kneel. He slid to his knees at Richards side and guided Richard to a lying down position, he pushed the shirt out of the way and lined the pump up with the hole in Richard’s chest, gave a quick- cuss heavy- prayer, and pressed down.

Richard’s eyes suddenly flew open and he gasped in a breath like a half-drowned person. His hand lay gently against his pump as if he couldn’t believe it was there. “Gavin, you-”

“I’ll shoot them!” Jack yelled, pointing his gun at Gavin and Richard, cutting off whatever Richard was going to say. They both froze, looking up at him, Gavin’s arms still half wrapped around Richard, Richard’s arm around Gavin’s shoulder.

The long bang echoed through the warehouse. Gavin tried to wrap himself around Richard protectively with his eyes squeezed shut, he had seen him almost die once, that was enough. Instead of the pain of a gunshot wound, he heard Jack scream in pain. He opened his eyes to see Jack fall to the ground, his hands pressed to his bleeding leg.

Hank gave Connor a look to which Connor held up his hands in innocence. “He said he was going to shoot them, something had to give.”

Hank shrugged and let it go.

Gavin looked at Richard and laughed, giddy with relief. “You’re okay!” He exclaimed. “You’re okay, god I was fucking worried.”

Richard broke him off by pressing his lips to Gavin’s. Gavin froze for a second, surprised, and then sank into the kiss, pulling Richard closer to him.

Richard broke off with a smile. “I am glad that you are alright.”

 

It didn't take long for the hospital to release Gavin and he quickly went to the android ward so he could be there when they finished running Richard's diagnostics. Richard stepped out and smiled when he saw Gavin standing there.

"Hi," Gavin said shortly, suddenly awkward for some reason.

"Hi," Richard responded, still smiling.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go do something?" Gavin offered up.

"No, not especially," Richard answered and Gavin's face fell. "But I was thinking a movie night might be nice."

Gavin beamed. "A movie night would be great, what were you thinking?"

"Something sweet and funny, I've maxed out my limit for drama and action today."

Gavin couldn't agree more. As they walked towards Gavin's house he couldn't help but blush like a middle schooler as he felt Richard's knuckles brush against his before finally holding his hand completely.


End file.
